Those are the only words uttered by Bill O'Reilly that I could ever agree with. The live album, when done correctly, can be one of those releases that cement a band's legacy or can document an artist at a specific point on their chosen path.
Here's a list, in no particular order, of live albums that I always find myself coming back to. Due to the nefarious nature of bootlegs, I have excluded them from the list. Given the amount of gambling involved with sound quality from the initial recording down to the pressing of the record, as much as I have an appreciation for a good Misfits bootleg, I wouldn't want to point someone in a direction that wouldn't be rewarding for their ears.
The live album should serve almost as a mix tape that documents a band at a certain point in time in their history. Whether it's the cohesion of a band when they are firing on all cylinders after a few albums and several miles down the road or the band sounds like they are flying apart in different creative directions, also after a few albums and several miles down the road, the live album is a snapshot of where they were there and then at that point in time.
James Brown—Revolution Of The Mind: Live At The Apollo Vol. III
Revolution Of The Mind was recorded over three nights in July of 1971 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. These shows featured the JBs line up that had two drummers. Jabo Starks and John Morgan were both holding it down while trying to find room for each other to play. This record is not for the James Brown fan whose only exposure to the man's work was his appearance in Rocky IV. The JBs were in the business of bringing the serious funk and they done brought it on those nights for The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.
The Ramones—It's Alive
Recorded at the Rainbow Theatre, in London, on New Year's Eve 1977, It's Alive, shows the Ramones at the height of their powers. The album was recorded after the release of Ramones, Leave Home and Rocket To Russia so it has a mind numbing amount of their best songs on it. The band played at a break neck speed jamming twenty-eight songs into fifty-four minutes. A few years back, the video footage of this performance was discovered, cleaned up and released on DVD. The remastered audio was also pressed to vinyl and sounds infinitely better than the original release. This is also the last time that Tommy Ramone can be heard on drums. He moved to a producer role with the band and was replaced by Marky Ramone.
Iggy Pop—Post Pop Depression: Live At Royal Albert Hall
Recorded in May of 2016, Live At Royal Albert Hall goes to show that Iggy Pop keeps getting better and better with age. His backing band for this show included Josh Homme and other members of Queens Of The Stone Age as well as members of the Arctic Monkeys. Homme assembled a band that was good enough to contain and challenge the hurricane that is Iggy Pop. There were no Stooges songs in this set. It was mostly Iggy's early solo material from his time working with David Bowie and songs from Post Pop Depression. As many times as I have listened to The Idiot, Lust For Life and other Iggy live records I had never heard those songs hit so hard. Hearing the new songs in a live environment gave me a new appreciation for Post Pop Depression and immediately made it one of my favorite Iggy albums. I was lucky enough to make it to Philadelphia to see one of the few shows that this lineup played together and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen.
There was a 3LP Record Store Day release of this concert as well as DVD/Blu-Ray/CD combo packs for your digital needs.
Nirvana—Live At Reading
Recorded during the band's performance at the UKs Reading Festival on August 20th, 1992, bits and pieces of this show ended up on the Live, Tonight, Sold Out video that stitched together live footage from various Nirvana shows. After having burned out on their music due to over exposure in my youth, I had not listened to Nirvana for quite a few years. Live At Reading was the release that renewed my appreciation for the band. The emotional baggage that I was carrying around with this band had lost its weight and I was able to hear Nirvana for what they really were. They were just a really good band.
OFF!—Live At The 9:30 Club
Back in 2011, Dinosaur Jr. played at the 9:30 Club on a tour where they were playing their album Bug in its entirety. OFF!, featuring Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame, was the opening act. Dinosaur Jr.'s set was being filmed and recorded so tape was rolled for OFF!'s set as well.
This was shortly after the release of OFF!'s first recorded output, The First Four Eps, which I was having trouble getting my ears around. I was lucky enough to be in the audience for this show and after the first two songs I completely understood what OFF! was about. Keith Morris approached each song as if his dreads were on fire and, after the Circle Jerks fizzled out, he finally had a band that could keep up with him.
Anti-Flag—Live Vol. 1
Taken from a series of shows recorded at the Troubadour, in Los Angeles, during Anti-Flag’s 20th anniversary tour, the sound quality of Live Vol. 1 is far superior to any of the other live recordings that the band has released. Since this was an anniversary tour, the band pulled songs from all over their catalogue. As well played as the older songs on this record are, it was great to hear Anti-Flag tear into the more recent songs, at the time, from American Spring. As many times as I have seen this band play they have never disappointed so it's beyond time for them to have a live album that reflects what they are capable of on a stage. And rumor has it that Live Vol. 2 will be released in the near future so I will most certainly be in line for that one when it comes out.
Doing it live is where the rubber meets the road with music and where a band shows what they are made of. So always remember, "Fuck it!!! We'll do it live!!!"
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